y 




Book Z112 

Copightl^? 



COPnaGHT DEPOSIK 




LIBRARY 

OF CHRISTIAN PROGRESS 




Volumes Issued 

The Church a Community Force. By Worth M, Tippy 
The Church at the Center. By Warren H. Wilson 
The Making of a Country Parish. By Harlow S. Mills 



Cloth, SO Cents, Prepaid 



ADDITIONAL VOLUMES TO BE ISSUED 



1 'O-f^t 










f M 



THE CHURCH AT 
THE CENTER 



WARREN H; \yiLSON 

Author of The Church of the Open Countrt 




NEW YORK 

Missionary Education Movement of the 
United States and Canada 

1914 






Copyright, 1914, by 
MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT 
OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 



SEP !l !3!4 

?)CI.A3S0277 



:3^' 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I Definitions . . . . i 

II A Mode of Rural Survey for 
Record and for Purposes of 
Practical Exhibit . . 9 

III The Country Church Program 17 

IV Illustrations of Socialized Ru- 

ral Church Work . -43 

V Suggestions for Rural Church 

Buildings . . . .69 

VI The Town or Village Church . 
IN Leadership of Country 
Life . . . . -79 

VII The Community Center Church 
AS THE Embodiment of Fed- 
eration and Religious Union 93 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

A Farmer's Morning. Frontispiece 
Blank for Map of the Community . 
Ready for a Plowing Match . 
The Du Page Church 
Floor Plans of the Du Page Church 
A Community Center 



y 


11^ 


26 ^ 


72 ^ 


74 v/ 


^6 / 



DEFINITIONS 

SOCIAL service is more than altruism 
or betterment or uplift, all of which 
are attempted for personal reasons. And 
social service is something else than 
neighborliness. It is help for a society 
through an organization; such service as 
a church can render a community. The 
social value of a church is its usefulness in 
the community. That church has social 
value which satisfies the common needs. 
In our Lord's time "the poor," "the sin- 
ners," "the lost sheep of the house of Is- 
rael," were the people whose needs were 
common to all. To them Jesus gave his 
own help and directed the first attention 
of organized Christianity. 

Social service in our time means organ- 
ized service to those in whom the com- 

[I] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

munity has a common interest. It is that 
kind of help to render which one organizes 
a group or joins a society. 

In an address by Mr. John M. Glenn is 
the following: ^'It is not enough that a 
church shall take good care of its own 
members, no matter how fully it may sup- 
ply .them with spiritual food. No church 
can claim to have done its duty or faced 
its rightful responsibility, unless it has been 
constantly alert to seek and to find every- 
thing that is destructive of men's physique 
and men's souls that may lie within its 
reach. 

"The churches have not, on the whole, 
realized that they have a duty to assume 
social responsibilities, to know and under- 
stand their neighborhoods, their cities, and 
their special localities, to examine into ac- 
tual conditions of living and learn what 
these are and what may be done to improve 
them, and to insist that their own members 

[2] 



DEFINITIONS 



as well as the state shall do their utmost 
to abolish patent existing evils. 

"If a church has not inspired its mem- 
bers to bold adventure in behalf of the 
weak and for the sake of the community, 
it has no right to call itself a church, nor 
to think that it is listening to the call of 
its great head." 

That church has social force which leads 
the community. It is a community church. 
Its service is universal: as the Master 
said, "It is the servant of all." Every 
church has value to some people. Some 
churches serve a few, some serve "the best 
people," but the church with social force 
serves all. 

To serve all means selection. It does 
not mean that the church with social force 
has everybody in its congregation. The 
community church may be attended by 
only a part of the people, while serving 
all the people. It is impossible to give 

[3] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

identical help to each individual. No 
church has any business to be more impar- 
tial than her Master, who devoted him- 
self to those whose needs were critical, and 
therefore of common concern. In Christ^s 
time these people were ^'the prodigals," 
*^the lost pieces of money," ''the lost sheep." 
In the country community of our time the 
church should serve the people who are 
in danger of losing out, who may have to 
leave the community. These are the sick, 
the poor, the young men and women, old 
people who find it hard to be "retired 
farmers," the renters who till land they do 
not own, the people who are in debt, and 
the hired or foreign-born help. 

The purpose of social service is to min- 
ister to the whole community, the rich as 
well as the poor, the learned as well as 
the ignorant. The ministry to the poor, or 
ignorant, or other needy persons is not 
given them because one prefers the ignorant 

[4] 



DEFINITIONS 



or the poor, or because he has any aversion 
to the rich or the learned. It is for the 
reason that to serve the poor is to serve 
all. To teach the ignorant is to help the 
learned and to heal the sick is to minister 
at the same time to the well. The only- 
way to minister to the whole community 
is to help the needy. 

To assist these or any of them is to help 
everybody. Service of these is "service of 
all." Whatever church helps them is leader 
of the community, because to satisfy their 
needs is to make the community whole. 

A certain character is found in those 
who join a serving group or society. With- 
out this character they would not be in a 
community church, or if they were, they 
would rebel against its spirit and oppose 
its methods. This character is found per- 
fectly embodied only in Jesus Christ. It 
is the spirit of a consecrated servant whose 
master is God. Every Christian man might 

[5] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

well ask himself whether he would make 
a good servant; whether he could wait on 
table, take orders from another man; 
whether he could cheerfully hold another 
man's coat, or wash his feet. Jesus did 
such things and his spirit has been called 
the spirit of a servant. He called himself 
the servant of God. This is the spirit of 
the members of a community church. Held 
together by like-mindedness, the traits 
they have in common we call spirituality, 
for theirs is the spirit which is found in 
heaven, as we know heaven through the 
Son of God, Jesus Christ, who came not 
to be served, but to serve. These traits of 
character are the evidence that men are re- 
generate through Christ. 

Knowledge is necessary for social serv- 
ice, as well as a right disposition. For the 
purpose of securing reliable knowledge 
social surveys are made. Investigation 
must be thorough in order that knowledge 
[6] 



DEFINITIONS 



may be accurate and reliable. Further- 
more, the findings must be published to 
all who are to take part in the service, be- 
cause the work is democratic and the intel- 
ligent participation of every Christian is 
essential to the result. 

There never was a time when full, large 
Christianity was so evidently necessary as 
now. The dependence of the Christian 
Church upon education, its essential rela- 
tion to assured and ample knowledge of 
conditions, is exhibited in the task of com- 
munity service to which all the churches 
are putting their hands. The social force 
of the Christian Church can be exerted 
only by people of a devout spirit conscious- 
ly giving themselves to the purposes of 
Jesus Christ, and guided in their action by 
all that may be known about the conditions 
and the needs of mankind for whom the 
Savior died. 

In this book the country church is defined 

[7] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

as the church in a community of less than 
2,500 population. Generally these com- 
munities have farming as the main concern. 
Very few of them, except in mining sections, 
depend for their living on anything except 
farming, and the secondary businesses of 
farming. So that the country church is 
very closely associated with agriculture, 
both in the village and in the open fields. 



[8] 



II 

A MODE OF RURAL SURVEY FOR 

RECORD AND FOR PURPOSES 

OF PRACTICAL EXHIBIT 

SURVEY is the name for a systematic 
study of a people, with a view to 
serving them as they have need. The 
people studied may be a parish or com- 
munity; or a city, county, or larger social 
population. The survey is orderly and sys- 
tematic in method, comprehensive in the 
facts studied, so that nothing is left out of 
account. Its purpose is an authoritative, 
reliable report which will put an end to 
hesitation and will render helpful service 
to the whole community possible. It is 
essential to a survey that it be published, 
for it concerns both the helpers and the 

[9] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

helped. Social service is always demo- 
cratic and public. 

There are two purposes of a Survey and 
as a result there are two kinds of Survey. 
One is for educational purposes, and is a 
study of conditions well known to the 
leader of a class, who desires through in- 
vestigation to train and enlarge the mind 
of his students. A good example of this 
type of rural survey is Miss Anna B. 
Taft's ^'Community Study for Country 
Districts." An excellent method of sur- 
veying a country community, especially if 
it centers in a village or town, is entitled, 
''A Method of Making a Social Survey 
of a Rural Community," which is pub- 
lished by Prof. C. J. Galpin of the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin. Each of these is so 
clear and simple that it can be applied to 
the purposes of a working group or class 
in a country church. The value of Miss 
Taft's ^'Community Study" is very great 

[10] 



A RURAL SURVEY 



in religious education. It should be used 
to set a group of adults at work in the 
service of their community. 

The second purpose of a survey is rec- 
ord. This type of survey has educational 
value, but its main purpose is to record 
and preserve a statement of the conditions 
discovered in the country community, in 
order that workers in the service of the 
church and the community may return to 
this record for reference and for authority 
at a later time. We give in this chapter 
the material for making such a survey. 
(i) A Map of the Community 
This should be drawn to scale, on the basis 
of including in the community all the land, 
households, business and social institutions 
within a "team haul" radius of the church, 
with the streams of water and highways, 
trolley lines and railroads, traversing the 
community. This graphic showing of the 
community, with every institution and 

[II] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

every household in its place, will do much 
to make clear the problem of the church 
in the country. It shows the whole of the 
domain of the church, which is a part of 

Map of the Community ^'.^ 



L.Ubrvtei 
f-SalooDotHoUi 








TroOT. 



















































































































[12] 



A RURAL SURVEY 

the kingdom of God. Nothing is secular, 
nothing common or material among the 
possessions of God; so that every store, 
every schoolhouse, and every farmhouse is 
a part of the parish of a community church. 
The measured areas will assist in draw- 
ing the map to scale. Symbols on the 
margin should be used to indicate the 
various features of the countryside. 

(2) Industrial and Religious Life 

What is the chief source of income in the com- 
munity ? How many persons are en- 
gaged in it ? How many members 

of the church get their hving in this industry?. . . . 

Name other industries How 

many are engaged in each industry ? 

How many members of the church are there in 

each of these industries ? From 

which industrial group does the church fail to se- 
cure members ? 

How many of the population of the community 

are old settlers ? What proportion of 

the church-membership is from this class ? 

How many foreign-born or of foreign- 
born parentage ? How many church- 

[13] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

members from the foreign element in the popula- 
tion? 

Among the farmers what proportion own their 

farms? What proportion of the 

farmers are renters ? What propor- 
tion of the church-membership are farm renters? 



(3) Social and Moral Life 

Name in the order of their popularity the places 
where men meet for informal conversation ...... 

Where do boys in their teens meet ? 

Name the public assembly or gathering 

that is attended by the community in a body 

How often does the community meet 

as a whole ? Who is the most influ- 
ential man among the whole population ? 

.... What is his occupation ? Give 

the number of families in the community 

Give the number of social gatherings or 

recreational enterprises of a public nature in the 

past six months What proportion 

of these was provided by lodges ? 

The Grange? Open societies? 

The clubs ? Public schools ? 

Churches ? 

How many of these social gatherings were pro- 
vided without pay ? How many were 

used as a means of raising money ? 

[14] 



A RURAL SURVEY 



Name the forms of recreation or play practised in 

the community Name those which 

are morally wholesome What are 

the churches doing to increase or to support whole- 
some recreation ? 

How many saloons in the community? 

.... Pool rooms ? Public dance 

halls ? Moving picture shows ? 

Theaters ? 

How many arrests in the past twelve months? 

Illegitimate births in the past twelve 

months? What centers of moral in- 
fection ? Is the moral tone of the 

community improving ? 

(4) The Church and the Community 

Name the churches in the community and state 

denomination. Which church is best 

fitted in building? Parsonage? 

Land ? Seating capacity ? 

Kitchen ? Parlors ? 

Cemetery ? Horse sheds ? 

or other equipment to serve the needs of the com- 
munity? Which church is next 

in point of fittings or equipment ? 

Describe the financial condition of each church 
in the following respects : Total amount raised for 

local expenditures ? Amount paid 

pastor? *.... Amount given for benevo- 

[15] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 



lences ? IMortgage on property ? . 

Amount raised from outside funds ? . 



State mode used by each church for raising 

money ? Pew rents ? 

Envelopes ? Plate contributions ? . . . . 

Give membership of each church 

.... Is it increasing? Give attendance of 

each church Is it increasing ? 

Give membership of Sunday-school of each church 



What religious service is needed in this com- 
munity which no church provides ? 

How many ministers serve in the community ? . . . . 

Name them, giving opposite each name 

the number of Sundays per month on which he 
preaches in the community and place of residence 

of the minister Which minister is 

most actively interested in the whole community? 



[i6] 



Ill 

THE COUNTRY CHURCH 
PROGRAM 

THE church needs a program nowa- 
days, because religion, which is as 
precious in men's eyes as ever it was, 
has changed its emphasis. We used to 
have a religion of fear and its program 
was very simple. It was to bring men out 
of fear into comfort and confidence. Men 
still fear the unseen and the old program 
is a good program, but the sense of fear is 
no longer so mighty as the sense of use 
or value. We need a new program because 
the church has nowadays to demonstrate 
its value and to increase its usefulness to 
all men. 
Worship is the first and the last of the 

[17] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

program in the country. The purpose of 
the church is to bring men near to God, and 
worship is the method of drawing near to 
God. Orderly worship is, above all, neces- 
sary to the country church. The perfection 
of details, foresight as to procedure and 
dignity in the public service of worship, 
are essential to all good work. No min- 
ister can mend throughout the week what 
he can mar on the Sunday morning. A 
church does not need to be liturgical to be 
reverent. The simplest worshipers are 
they who often have the holiest places of 
worship, and convey the most of fear and 
awe and love in their public services. But 
before any program of active service, the 
orderly worship of the house of prayer is 
to be regarded as the minister's chief ser- 
vice. The worship of the Lord's day is the 
highest expression of community life. It 
is the privilege which the minister of re- 
ligion shares with no other public servant. 
[i8] 



COUNTRY CHURCH PROGRAM 

(i) In all its work the church deals 
with individuals. Its purpose is always to 
bring men to God, through obedience to 
a personal Savior, therefore it is in all 
things an evangelistic and educational in- 
stitution. Every church should regularly 
preach the gospel of personal salvation. It 
is wise to let no year pass without at least 
one season of evangelism. Leading pas- 
tors in the country have their preferred 
times for spiritual quickening. We recom- 
mend here only that the church foresee the 
time of its evangel and at the beginning of 
the year plan for a harvest of souls. In 
order to win men to loyal, obedient service 
in the church, which is "the body of 
Christ," it is better that the pastor be the 
evangelist and that the work be done by 
the people of the church through faithful, 
simple preaching and personal work. 

(2) The teaching of the Bible is the 
greatest means of conversion through the 

[19] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

building of personal character. The Sun- 
day-school is organized for this purpose. 
It should be taken seriously by all and its 
work done in no slovenly or careless man- 
ner, but with the utmost thoroughness. The 
minister himself in a small church may 
well be the superintendent. This is his 
opportunity to teach. He should certainly 
be identified with the school, holding him- 
self and every other teacher strictly to ac- 
count for presence or absence. Systematic 
and thorough methods, with classes graded 
upon the public school standards, should 
prevail in the Sunday-school. The pur- 
pose of the work is to bring all the children 
naturally through the development of 
knowledge along with the growth in char- 
acter to acceptance of Jesus Christ. 

The teaching of the Bible from the pul- 
pit in simple terms, with homely illustra- 
tions from the farm, from nature, and from 
that field of experience common to the an- 

[20] 



COUNTRY CHURCH PROGRAM 

cient Hebrews and to modern country peo- 
ple, is essential to the educational service 
of the church. 

Family prayer should be diligently or- 
ganized among the families of the congre- 
gation. It is a mistake to suppose that the 
family altar is in our time unnecessary or 
that it cannot be set up. Canadian churches 
are alive to the value and necessity of fam- 
ily worship. There are churches in city 
and in country throughout all North Amer- 
ica in which as large a proportion of the 
families have the reading of the Bible and 
prayer together as the proportion who do 
thorough Sunday-school work. These 
three factors in the teaching of the country 
church make up a complete program of 
instruction, and the basis of all is the im- 
parting of gospel truth to the growing, 
absorbing mind of the young. 

(3) A sound financial policy is relig- 
iously necessary in the country church. It 

[21] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

is a part of piety for men to give. We are 
not ashamed that our civilization has much 
to do with money. Freedom has used 
finance in the fight against tyranny, and the 
Protestant doctrine of personal salvation 
takes form in the Protestant practise of 
owning personal property. We are not 
ashamed of our thrift, of our savings, and 
of our ownership. These must be conse- 
crated in a deliberate, systematic doctrine 
and scheme of finance in the local church. 

Farmers are beginning to prosper. The 
days of poverty are nearly over. Founda- 
tions are being laid for a thrifty and re- 
warding agriculture. The church must 
lead those who face economic revival, in 
consecrating the new prosperity unto the 
Lord. The Bible is full of this doctrine of 
giving the "first fruits" and of "laying by" 
upon the first day of the week. The coun- 
try church, which has been an inexpensive 
institution with no budget, the object of 

[22] 



COUNTRY CHURCH PROGRAM 

little care or attention, must be sanctified 
and redeemed to a divine use by a better 
system of finance. In all the leading 
churches, with substantial unanimity as to 
method, financial campaigns are proposed. 
It is our place here only to insist that regu- 
lar and appropriate payment unto the Lord 
is essential to rural religion. 

Great advance is made in these days in 
the adoption of the Budget System by 
country churches. Notable gains are re- 
ported from Canadian churches. The 
farmers are beginning to consecrate the 
prosperity which is coming to them to the 
Lord. The close relation which may not 
exist between economic prosperity and 
spirituality does maintain itself between 
economic prosperity and church growth. 
When good people do well their churches 
thrive: and as the church has much to do 
with prosperity we may expect that higher 
levels of personal religion will be attained 

[23] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

through the consecration of economic ad- 
vance in the country church. 

(4) The country church should have 
a part in moral reform. American country 
churches have transformed the temperance 
movement, which once v^as purely a per- 
sonal appeal to '^sign the pledge," into a 
war upon organized vice which makes its 
home in the saloon. The country church 
in this demonstrated its social power. It 
showed itself to be an organization serving 
society. The temperance movement has 
been a gallant crusade for the rescue of the 
community from the grip of the saloon. 

There are other reforms to which the 
country church should give its attention. 
None is beneath the notice of the church 
if it concerns the whole of the community 
or of the commonwealth. Nothing is alien 
to Christianity which has to do with hu- 
manity. If God wants a thing done, the 
church ought to lead in doing it. For this 

[24] 



COUNTRY CHURCH PROGRAM 

reason the church has taken a great part 
in the country life movement, which is a 
social enterprise for the rescue of the coun- 
try community from decadence. 

(5) The church in the country should 
remember its allies and keep close to them 
in mutual service. These are the common 
schools, the Grange, neighborhood and 
community associations, and all societies or 
movements for betterment or for charity, 
justice, good citizenship, or other good 
cause. He that doeth righteousness is of 
God, and all societies for well-doing are the 
church's kin. They should often visit the 
meeting-house. The church should al- 
ways be loyal to them, should never ostra- 
cize them, and at least once a year should 
appear with each of them in public. 

(6) The country church should be a 
community center. There is no other in- 
stitution universal among farmers and 
freely supported. The church differs from 

[25] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

the school, which has the support of gov- 
ernment, in that grown up people use it 
seriously. The grown-up interests of the 
community, therefore, ought to have a 
place in the church. Nothing of a univer- 
sal character is unworthy. To be a lead- 
ing church means to be "servant of all," 
and this universal usefulness lays a great 
duty on the church. It is then the one 
institution in which the community has 
a home. And where else, unless it be in the 
schoolhouse, should it be at home? This 
universal service is the solution of the prob- 
lem of church comity or federation. The 
one way to unite the whole community in 
religious matters is to serve needs common 
to all. Some of these needs will appear 
in the features of the program which are 
to follow. 

(7) The church in the country should 
provide, or at least endorse, a community 
policy of recreation. Nobody else in the 

[26] 



COUNTRY CHURCH PROGRAM 

country is doing so, except, in some places, 
the country school, which has a similar 
duty. Recreation, or organized play, is a 
necessity in a working community. It is 
as necessary that a working community 
play together as it is that a workingman 
shall sweat. We must respect the spirit of 
play just as much as we respect perspira- 
tion. It is as unhealthy to be without one 
as it is to be without the other. Many 
country churches have undertaken delib- 
erately to direct and to provide the recrea- 
tions needed in the community. What a 
noble word recreation is! It indicates in 
its very syllables that we are taking part in 
the work of God. We are refreshing and 
renewing the tired body and mind. Fur- 
thermore, recreation has a moral power. 
Play is only bad when it is opposed by 
good people. It is on the playground that 
children learn welcome lessons in telling 
the truth, in honorable treatment of one an- 

[27] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

other, in obeying one another, and in self- 
sacrifice for a common end. The country 
needs leaders and it is in play that we first 
discover leaders. Therefore, because play 
trains the conscience and organized play 
trains the citizen and disciplines the young 
soldier, the church should see that needful 
facilities for play are provided in the com- 
munity. It may be that the school will take 
charge of the playground. It may be that 
some public-spirited citizens will see that 
the young people are cared for, but the 
church should be custodian of the problem 
of recreation, because play has so much 
to do with right and wrong. The school 
is the home of the intellect, but the church 
is the home of the conscience. Therefore, 
recreation is the business of the church. 

Some communities have done their duty 
by celebrating the holidays of the year as 
great play days. We have not nearly so 
many holidays as the Hebrews, and those 

[28] 



COUNTRY CHURCH PROGRAM 

who object to holidays because they take 
people from work- must have forgotten that 
God Almighty made the Jews a rich and 
industrious and devout nation through a 
training in which feasts, holidays, outdoor 
picnics, living in booths, and going on ex- 
cursions occupied a great place every year. 
The solemn, historical events of the year 
are celebrated by the Jews in festivals of 
joy. All these feasts bring the whole peo- 
ple together. Families are reunited, rela- 
tives exchange visits and presents, and the 
cares of business are laid aside. If we are 
going to make the Americans a great peo- 
ple, we will have to use many holidays as 
a method in the process, and the harder we 
work the more holidays we need. 

Dramatic entertainments occupy an in- 
creasing place in the country. The church 
may well take charge of these herself, as 
for many centuries in the simple life of 
medieval Europe the churches did. The 

[29] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

Christmas play is a good way of showing 
the Christmas spirit for the whole com- 
munity. It freshens up the gospel story 
and puts it in modern dress. Everybody 
comes to such a play ; Roman Catholic and 
Protestant, rich and poor. Usually dra- 
matic entertainments are easier to provide 
than musical entertainments, and they are 
more popular. More people can under- 
stand them and take part in them. 

(8) The country church should be a 
learner in the new science of agriculture. 
When God was making a people he taught 
them to possess a land. The Hebrews were 
made a holy nation in part by the agricul- 
tural teaching of Deuteronomy. Scientific 
agriculture is a modern commentary on 
Deuteronomy. It is the knowledge and the 
imperative given by God Almighty for the 
possession of the soil by those who work 
it. The church has no need as a rule to 
teach agriculture, nor does the American 

[30] 



COUNTRY CHURCH PROGRAM 

church need to set up a school of soils and 
silos and animal husbandry, for this teach- 
ing is provided by the universities and by 
the government. But the church should 
provide the spirit in which this knowledge 
shall be used. 

For that reason the minister and the peo- 
ple must be students of agriculture. The 
same zeal which the ministers have put in 
the past into the study of "the promised 
land" in Palestine should be put upon the 
study of the promised land in America; for 
the American farmer is taking possession 
of his promised land just as the Hebrews 
were doing in the time of Joshua and of 
Samuel, and he has as hard a fight against 
modern Philistines as they had. When 
country people are praying for the posses- 
sion of land they need a church to help 
them. 

Therefore it is often a good thing to hold 
a farmers' institute in a church. It is a 

[31] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

far better thing for minister and people to 
indicate clearly the duty that man owes to 
the soil, and the responsibility of those who 
till the soil to the whole people. The main 
purpose in all of this should be that the 
people of the country church shall be good 
farmers. Indeed, if the church is to sur- 
vive in the country, it must be true in the 
future as in the past, that the members of 
the church of Christ are the best farmers 
in the community. This is necessary, be- 
cause the land in the country is passing into 
the hands of better farmers and out of the 
possession of poorer farmers. 

(9) The country church must maintain 
its alliance with the country school. Prot- 
estants have as a rule no parochial schools, 
and that fact shows, not that they disbe- 
lieve, but that they believe in the school. 
Christianity is dependent on education. It 
is an expression of intelligence applied to 
the problem of religion. The religion of 

[32] 



COUNTRY CHURCH PROGRAM 

Jesus Christ differs from other religions in 
knowledge and in sound convictions. This 
is why Christ's advent could occur only 
"when the fulness of the time came." 

The Protestant churches, which do not 
have parochial schools, are deliberately 
committed to the public school. They must 
not, therefore, abandon the public school 
and forget their dependence upon it. If 
they do and if the public school is aban- 
doned by good people, the churches will 
perish, for in the end Protestantism and 
Christianity are dependent for their form 
and their maintenance upon trained intelli- 
gence. Protestant congregations are de- 
pendent for their continuance upon ade- 
quate public schools. 

But we cannot directly control the pub- 
lic school as the Roman Catholic priest con- 
trols the parochial school. All the more 
spiritual must be our alliance with it. The 
church must train its people in those ideas 

[33] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

of education which will result in good com- 
mon schools. The minister must be alive 
and alert to the modern development of ed- 
ucation. His contribution to the commun- 
ity by indirect means and the obedience of 
his people to the higher principles of educa- 
tion as these are tried and proved have an 
essential place in the program of the rural 
church. 

(lo) The rural church must direct its 
work to the winning of the marginal mem- 
bers of the community. This is essential 
to a social ministry. In order to reach the 
whole community those who are in jeop- 
ardy, or whose permanence in the commun- 
ity is in question, must be won. It is not 
so necessary for the church to seek the rich, 
or the devout, or the morally strong. Let 
them give of their gifts and contribute of 
their resources to the church. But the poli- 
cies of the church in the country must be 
framed with the intention of reaching the 

[34] 



COUNTRY CHURCH PROGRAM 

tenant farmer, the laborer, and the young 
people of the community; and with them 
any others who in a particular community 
are struggling, or discouraged, or likely to 
give up. 

(ii) Curiously, the most important 
thing of all is that the country church 
should take its own denomination seri- 
ously. There is a slovenly and indolent way 
of looking upon the rural congregation as 
if it did not matter whether it cooperated 
with the organized life of its denomination 
or not. But the country church is a part 
of a great religious society. If it is a 
Methodist church, it should be organized 
under the authority of the Bishop, the 
Superintendent, and the Boards of the 
church. Its policies should be obedient to 
the great purposes of the denomination. If 
it is Presbyterian, it can only be injured — 
it cannot at all be helped — by permitting 
it to be independent of Presbytery. If it 
[35] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

is Baptist, it ought to affiliate itself in 
hearty cooperation with the organized ac- 
tivities of the Baptist denomination. Each 
church must work in harmony with the 
methods of the organization on which it 
depends for its living. Mongrel churches 
which show a mixture of several denomina- 
tions in their ways of work belong to no 
order of religion and are weaker than any. 
In a wide study of country churches it has 
been found that in the greatest number of 
instances the churches which are well or- 
ganized, according to the manner and form 
of their denomination and according to the 
general plans and proposals of Christian 
men in our time, prove to be the best 
churches. 

(12) For a particular population the 
church's program will be specially adapted. 
As an illustration we add a program of 
church work which is being used in a cer- 
tain group of churches. 

[36] 



COUNTRY CHURCH PROGRAM 

A PROGRAM FOR RURAL CHURCHES 

Looking toward a Forward Movement in 

These Churches During the Coming 

Year along the Following Lines : 

L THE FEEDING OF THE FLOCK, or the 
building up of the members of the church in the 
knowledge of the Word of God and strengthening 
them in the Christian life. 

The Means to he Employed 

I. Preaching 

The preaching services in many rural churches 
are few and far between, once or twice a month. 
The most possible, therefore, should be made of 
these services by working out carefully, beforehand, 
each order of service, so that the congregation may 
proceed in a worshipful manner. The effectiveness 
of many a good sermon is spoiled by a bungling 
opening and closing exercise, beginning late and 
dragging through the service in a loose slipshod 
way. 

Care should be used in selecting appropriate 
hymns, one of which at least should carry the 
theme of the sermon. Let the organist and choir 
have the hymns early in the week preceding the 
preaching services. 

It is a decided advantage to have the congrega- 
tion stand during the singing of the hymns. This 

[37] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

rests the people and helps to put them in better tune 
for listening to the sermon. 

2. Pastoral Visitation 

Let every home be visited at least twice a year, 
and oftener if possible, giving special attention to 
the sick. 

No pastor should have favorite families to whose 
homes he runs often. 

Let the pastor's calls be purposeful and not too 
long. 

Aim to see and have a word with every member 
of the family before leaving the home even though 
it involves a trip to the field for a word of greeting 
with the boy behind the plow. 

The pastor's visitation may be supplemented by 
the assistance of a well-selected visiting committee 
of men and women, including the officers. 

3. The Sunday School 

For greater efficiency and thoroughness the fol- 
lowing things are recommended: 

(i) Occasional teachers' meetings with the 
church officers for conference and prayer. 

(2) The organization of a Cradle Roll and 
Home Department. 

(3) The organization of the young people's 
classes for definite social service, one for the young 
men and one for the young women, where no other 
young people's organizations exist. 

(4) The observance of at least the following 

[38] 



COUNTRY CHURCH PROGRAM 

special days : Children's Day, Thanksgiving, Christ- 
mas, Easter, and Rally Day, taking the customary 
offerings on these occasions as recommended by the 
Church Boards. 

(5) Have a series of ten-minute talks on the 
purpose of each of the several boards. 

4. The Bible in the Home 

Seek to install the practise of daily Bible read- 
ing by the family together in the homes, using the 
selections of Scripture given in the Sunday School 
Quarterlies for daily reading. 

5. Prayer 

Where a regular mid-week prayer-meeting at 
the church is not practicable, cottage prayer-meet- 
ings are recommended. 

It is an excellent plan, occasionally, to precede 
the sermon with an informal prayer and praise serv- 
ice instead of using the regular formal opening 
service. 

6. Woman's Missionary Society 

A society should be organized in communities 
where none exists, for the study of missions, for 
fellowship, and for service. It may be combined 
with the Aid Society. 

7. Religious Literature in the Home 

(i) A religious weekly and missionary maga- 
zine. Earnest effort should be put forth to place 
a religious weekly and missionary magazine in every 
home. 

[39] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

(2) The leaflets from the various Boards. 

8. A Christian Training Class 

Pastors and officers are urged to begin Christian 
classes for the children between the ages of eight 
and fourteen years. Saturday afternoons through 
the summer season is a good time for the class to 
meet. 

9. An Every Member Canvass 

using the individual pledge; the double budget 
recommended. Annual church rally to follow this 
campaign. 

11. EVANGELIZATION 

The Means to he Employed 

I. Preaching 

(i) Part of the regular preaching services 
should be evangelistic in their nature and an invi- 
tation given. Have a special revival campaign for 
a number of weeks preceding Thanksgiving Day, 
or Easter, possibly from the first of January and 
culminating on Easter Sunday, in which all the 
regular preaching services are evangelistic. Dur- 
ing this period encourage the members of the church 
to do personal work and to invite those not in the 
habit of church attendance to come to the meetings, 
and also to visit people in their homes. 

(2) Occasional evangelistic meetings in the 
schoolhouses on Sunday afternoons in the winter 

[40] 



COUNTRY CHURCH PROGRAM 

season or in a grove in the summer-time in which 
laymen and the young people participate largely. 

(3) Special revival meetings by an evangelist 
if thought best. 

2. Mission study in connection with the Sunday- 
school, the young people's organizations, and the 
woman's missionary society. 

3. Offering for missionary work. (Not in addi- 
tion to the regular offerings for benevolences and 
the special offerings taken in the Sunday-school on 
special days.) 

4. Pastoral Visitation^ and Personal 
Work by Church Officers and Teachers. 

III. SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY 
THROUGH CHURCH FORCES 

See that at least one popular meeting is held in 
the community during the year in the interests of 
the five following causes, providing the initiative 
is not taken by any other agency than the church 
to do this work. In that case the church is to 
cooperate : 

1. Education of the Young through the 

Public Schools. 

2. Better Farming (Rural life institute). 

3. Good Roads. 

Have a good-roads day when everybody turns 
out to do some practical work on a given piece of 
road, the different crews meeting at a central place 

[41] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

at the noon hour for dinner with a good-roads 
speech by some competent person, if possible. Suit- 
able literature in the shape of bulletins, tracts, and 
other literature should be distributed from time to 
time on these subjects. 

4. Recreation. See that there is sufficient whole- 

some entertainment and recreation provided 
in the community for old and young. 

5. Music. Do something special during the year 

toward developing the musical talent of the 
community. 
It is urged that a record be kept of all efforts 
put forth, with the results obtained at certain dates. 



[42] 



IV 

ILLUSTRATIONS OF SOCIALIZED 
RURAL CHURCH WORK 

TO illustrate the principle of organ- 
ized Christian work, examples of 
churches that have made good in the coun- 
try are given here. No attempt is made 
to praise or promote these churches; they 
are named as sign-posts to guide the reader 
in the way of community service in the 
country. 

A successful church in the country wears 
no label of being rural. It does not adver- 
tise farming. It is just a church in a high 
state of efficiency. For while every church, 
urban, rural, or foreign, reflects the social 
environment with the utmost precision, its 
own message is in all lands and places the 

[43] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

same. The greater its efficiency, the more 
perfectly does it exhibit the signs of a gospel 
institution, a religious association, a society 
of spiritual-minded people. 

It should be borne in mind that no at- 
tempt is made here to enumerate the suc- 
cessful churches or to give any estimate of 
the proportion of country churches that il- 
lustrate the theme. None is mentioned, 
however, whose minister or people are not 
in a position to advise others as to the suc- 
cess and value of community service in 
their experience. 

The extremes of community service are 
evangelism, on the one hand, and economic 
teaching, on the other. Very few country 
churches render community service by mere 
evangelism. Neither do many country 
ministers serve the community as teachers 
of agriculture, although it is perfectly ob- 
vious that the evangelistic spirit and the 
sympathetic relation of the minister to the 

[44] 



SOCIALIZED RURAL WORK 

farmer in his economic struggle are essen- 
tial to community service. 

An example of evangelistic rural church 
work is the Methodist Episcopal Church 
at Alexandria, Licking County, Ohio, 
which has made it a business to '^discover, 
win, and find a place for every natural 
leader." The work of this church is per- 
sonal work. In one revival campaign 158 
members were added to the church. The 
Brotherhood of the church has ^^the glad 
hand" as a motto. The Rev. Karl B. Alex- 
ander is the minister. 

An instance of agricultural leadership, 
among the few in which ministers have 
taught their people how to farm, is that of 
a church in Saint Anthony, Du Bois 
County, Indiana. The rector undertook, 
with the advice of an agricultural professor 
in a state university, to transform the 
agricultural methods of his people. Six 
years of diligent study and constant experi- 

[45] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

mentation and discussion resulted in a re- 
vision of the methods of tilling the soil; a 
transformation of the farm economy from 
dependence upon grain to a dependence 
upon fruit culture. 

Ministers generally agree with econo- 
mists like Prof. Thomas Nixon Carver, 
in holding that the service of the church in 
the country should be social rather than 
economic. While the two cannot be kept 
strictly apart, the church is generally held 
to be a social, not an economic, institution. 
It has to do with the people, rather than 
the property, in the country. The Meth- 
odist and Presbyterian churches in Bellona, 
New York, have recognized this in their 
union to form a farmers' club. The original 
members of this club were the ministers 
and church officers of the two congrega- 
tions named, which divide the field between 
them. Women as well as men have been 
admitted to the club, and from the first its 

[46] 



SOCIALIZED RURAL WORK 

discussions have taken a high plane of in- 
terest. Cornell University professors have 
been among the most frequent speakers to 
address the club. Their topics have been 
as a rule economic and the studies made by 
the club have to do with the preservation 
of the soil, the marketing of farm products, 
as well as with the social problems of the 
family, the school, the church, and general 
questions of patriotism and mental culture. 
This club has been of great spiritual in- 
fluence. By means of it the two churches 
have each had access to the central, social 
life of the community. All the people of 
the countryside have become through this 
club potentially members of each church 
and both pastors have had full access to the 
whole population. The Rev. T. Maxwell 
Morrison, Bellona, New York, is the pastor 
longest in service who knows about this 
work. 
The Harmony Methodist Protestant 

[47] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

Church, in Ravenwood, Missouri, called 
as its pastor about five years ago a young 
minister, the Rev. C. R. Green. He under- 
took to live with his people in the country, 
eight miles and a half from town. They 
paid at that time an insufficient salary. One 
result of his ministry has been an ample 
and satisfactory support for the minister 
and a house for him to live in. The church 
recently had 207 members. The work has 
proceeded along lines of social develop- 
ment. Whatever the community needed 
as a relaxation from labor, as a diversion 
in the loneliness and isolation of farm work, 
as a means of emotional and esthetic culture 
to compensate for the tedium and common- 
place in life, this church has seen fit to 
supply. The social life of the young people 
has been a large factor in Mr. Green's 
work. His own labor as a pastor and his 
residence among his people have been large 
contributions to the warmth and sym- 

[48] 



SOCIALIZED RURAL WORK 

pathy and social growth of the countryside. 
Many organizations have been created to 
satisfy the needs of the people. Among 
other things a brass band of twenty-six 
pieces is maintained in this rural congrega- 
tion. A crowning tribute to the social and 
intellectual capacity and to the fine culture 
of this congregation was given last summer, 
when the leading men who support the 
Chautauqua Assembly in Ravenwood asked 
the Harmony Church to take two days in 
the Chautauqua and to provide the pro- 
gram. The congregation accepted service 
for one whole day, came into town in a 
body and provided music, speakers, and 
other talent for the full day's program. On 
account of the long drive it was not thought 
best to take the second day, but the adven- 
ture gave heart and happiness to the rural 
church and taught them how far they had 
already gone in the development of com- 
munity life. 

[49] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

Instances of the relation of the country 
church to the country school are many. 
Churches near Petersburg, Illinois, are 
mentioned, not because they alone illus- 
trate this relation, but because they have 
done something distinctive. The Rev. H. 
O. Tribbe, pastor of the Free Baptist 
Church in the country near Petersburg, is 
teacher at the same time of the common 
schools. His work as minister does not in- 
terfere with his school-teaching, nor is his 
experience as a teacher ignored in his work 
as pastor. In the Sunday-school of his 
church graded lessons are used and children 
are graded according to their attainments 
in the common school grades, so that the 
children meet on the Sabbath day and study 
with their week-day companions. 

The Presbyterian Church at Rock Creek, 
Illinois, occupies a peculiar relation to the 
public school. Formally it has no relation 
to it, for of course church and school are 

[50] 



SOCIALIZED RURAL WORK 

separate in all American communities. But 
in the parish of this church there is no 
other congregation, so that the people in 
several school districts are Presbyterians. 
A definite influence, therefore, has been 
exerted upon the schools by the men of one 
congregation. Several years ago these lead- 
ing men felt the force of the exodus from 
the country. They consulted as to methods 
for arresting this movement to the city and 
the town. The chief reason of their interest 
was the impoverishment of church and 
family life by the departure of prosperous 
and desirable neighbors. Attempts were 
made to select a desirable class of renters 
who should settle on the land. Ultimately 
this discussion narrowed down to the im- 
provement of the public schools. Three 
districts were consolidated and the result 
has been most happy. The exodus from 
the countryside has been arrested, owners 
and tenants who come into the neighbor- 

[51] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

hood do so by preference and at some ex- 
pense to themselves, because land is of 
higher value and rents for more money as 
a result of the improved schools. This ex- 
perience of the Rock Creek church has 
been a typical illustration of the close rela- 
tion between church and school, for these 
substantial farmers, descendants of the 
earliest settlers, realized keenly the neces- 
sity of good schools if their church was to 
be maintained in the countryside and if 
other churches were to be excluded from 
the parish bounds in which their church 
had been so long a community center. Now 
church and manse and consolidated school 
stand side by side in the open country. 

Music is so religious a thing that it 
should have a place by itself. No other 
form of culture is absolutely necessary if 
the people be trained in church to sing. 
Gomer Congregational Church, in Allen 
County, Ohio, has for years, under the 

[52] 



SOCIALIZED RURAL WORK 

leadership of Mr. George W. Williams, 
cultivated the best music. A choir of be- 
tween fifty and a hundred voices can be 
assembled, and regularly throughout the 
year music is rendered of a quality rarely 
heard in the country. People travel in the 
summer months from near-by cities to hear 
and enjoy the singing at Gomer Church. 
This instance of esthetic culture as a form 
of social service illustrates what the church 
must do to make life worth while to people ; 
to keep them from the discouragement and 
revulsion which come of commonplace ex- 
periences and material labor. Life must 
be given grace and the Sundays, as well as 
the evenings and mornings of the day, must 
be filled in some manner with beauty. 
Idealism must be had if men are to live 
and to live together. For this reason the 
churches which have cultivated music in 
an exceptional degree are illustrious under 
the head of community service. 

[53] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

A fine example of the centering of a 
spiritual life for a whole community in a 
church is seen in the Disciple Church at 
Hiram, Portage County, Ohio. So well- 
rounded is the work of this church that one 
cannot state its service in a single proposi- 
tion. Hiram College and community pur- 
sue their labors together throughout the 
week and worship together in the Disciple 
Church on the Lord's day. Every interest 
of the community meets here. All the life- 
blood of the college and of the town flows 
in and out of the auricle and ventricle in 
this beating heart. An excellent building 
and a large membership, a minister, the 
Rev. John E. Pounds, awake to every intel- 
ligence of the learned and every need of 
the most humble, make eminent a church 
too well organized to be classified save that 
it is the center of the community. 

The Sunday-school should by every line 
of probability be the working center of the 

[54] 



SOCIALIZED RURAL WORK 

church, especially in the country. In the 
United Brethren Church of Old Fort, 
Seneca County, Ohio, this is true. The 
Sunday-school is large enough, with a 
membership of 231, to be a power, but its 
strength is not in mere numbers. It is ex- 
cellently organized and its work centers in 
a course for teacher-training. Thirty-seven 
members of the school have graduated from 
the standard course. Last year there were 
eleven members in the third-year class of 
the advanced teachers' training course about 
to complete their studies. On the last 
Decision Day twenty-three members of the 
Sunday-school joined the church. The 
adult Bible class is a dynamic for evangel- 
ism. Mr. C. C. Drown, a business man of 
Old Fort, has charge of the teacher-training 
class and to him much credit is due for the 
organization of this efficient school at the 
heart of a serviceable church. 

In selecting an illustrious instance of 

[55] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

financial ministry the place of the United 
Presbyterian Church is significant. In 
Cedarville, Green County, Ohio, is a church 
of this denomination which has an eminent 
financial system. The church publishes a 
directory and financial statement each year, 
in which are given the names of the mem- 
bers and the amount contributed toward 
salary and incidentals, with the amount also 
opposite each name contributed by that 
member toward missions and benevolences. 
Contributions no larger than five cents from 
children are fully itemized. The result is 
that of the total receipts in the last year 
reported of $6,500, only $2,050 went to the 
congregational expenses, and toward mis- 
sionary interests $2,859 were contributed. 
The Mission Boards received from this 
church $10.25 P^^ member. In the same 
year an amount equal to $1,400 was con- 
tributed for decoration and improvement 
of the church property, yet without special 

[56] 



SOCIALIZED RURAL WORK 

subscription for these extra expenses. The 
pastor, the Rev. James S. M. McMichael, 
is sympathetic with the life of the young 
people and has served as coach on college 
and high-school teams. Cedarville is a 
village with three churches in a population 
of one thousand. 

A brilliant example of the rounded suc- 
cess in a country church which comes to a 
minister and a people as a result of taking 
all phases of life into the circle of religion, 
is found in Buckhorn, Kentucky. In a little 
more than ten years the Rev. Harvey S. 
Murdock has built up a community church 
under conditions in which most men fail. 
His results in evangelism are in excess of 
those in any church of the same denomina- 
tion in Kentucky. Indeed there are few in 
the country which have proportionately in- 
creased so much. But the "two arms of 
evangel in Buckhorn are baseball and 
the fight against illicit whisky." Buckhorn 
[57] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

is in the mountains of Kentucky, not far 
from the famous Breathitt County in which 
feuds and law-breaking seem perennial. 
But at Buckhorn the whole of life is 
brought under the influence of religion. 
People are taught to farm. The very corn 
and the hogs are taught to improve. The 
young people are encouraged to play. 
Public games entice the young men away 
from evil influences. A college with an 
enrolment in hundreds stands side by side 
with the church. All the needs of the 
countryside are met, and so far as possible 
satisfied, in a wholesome community life. 
Because the needs are acute and even tragic 
in Buckhorn the church has wrought a great 
success, which should be the greater, rather 
than the less, in communities where the 
same needs are in a commonplace, rather 
than in a tragic, form. 

In the great Middle West, ''the granary 
of the world," along with the improvement 

[58] 



SOCIALIZED RURAL WORK 

of farming to meet the needs of a greater 
population, where scientific agriculture is 
getting its fullest use and cooperative action 
of farmers is becoming general, distin- 
guished country churches are found in 
numbers. If the church may keep pace 
with the development of better farming her 
future is assured. Without the parallel de- 
velopment of the church the improved 
farming, because it is more profitable to a 
few, will result in a commercial spirit and 
a dispersed farm population. 

In DeKalb County, Illinois, is the Suy- 
dam Methodist Episcopal Church, to 
which the Rev. Willis Ray Wilson came 
as pastor four years ago. This church is 
nearly six miles from the pastor's residence 
in Leland, and in it his rural congregation 
has a service of worship and preaching 
every Sunday, and, as it is the only church 
in Victor township, it has in its congrega- 
tion the representatives of five denomina- 

[59] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

tions. The new minister began his work 
with a Sunday-school contest, the results of 
which amazed the countryside. At a final 
service the meeting-house was packed and 
there was a congregation of equal size out- 
of-doors, so that the pulpit was moved to 
the front porch for the occasion. An ag- 
gressive evangelistic campaign followed, 
and promptly, in the order which country 
ministers love, the church began to enlarge 
her interests. Corn contests, with prizes, 
were held and a baking contest for the 
ladies. A farmers' institute, with speakers 
seldom heard in such meetings, followed, 
and during the winter months entertain- 
ments, home talent plays, discussions of 
woman's suffrage, of consolidated schools 
and other humane problems, with lectures. 
Holiday entertainments filled the season of 
rural leisure. A country problem class 
studied during the winter the rural situa- 
tion, both local and national. In the sum- 

[60] 



SOCIALIZED RURAL WORK 

mer a great community picnic is held for 
all, with a ^'field day"; the men visiting in 
a body different fields for the comparative 
study of fertilizers in use. The women are 
organized as well as the men and the chil- 
dren. The pastor has a ready-made point 
of contact device by which he commends 
himself to the hired men, in the form of a 
husking-peg, which he carries in his pocket. 
Throughout the fall months he frequently 
uses it as a calling-card upon the tenant or 
hired man new to the community. 

It is no wonder that the minister of this 
church declines to leave, for he realizes that 
the country church, when dignified with 
the whole-hearted service of a whole man 
and inspired with the spirit of the Master, 
is a great success and a more satisfying field 
of work than is the town or city. The secret 
of Mr. Wilson's success at Leland and at 
Suydam churches is systematic and sym- 
pathetic service among his people. 
[6i] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

An equally interesting church in the 
country is at Osceola, in Stark County, 
Illinois. Here the pastor of the Baptist 
church has given six years to the service of 
a people of whom only eighty live in the vil- 
lage. His satisfaction has come in the re- 
ward of his belief that the "rural commun- 
ity must be the one big place in which he 
may serve Jesus Christ." He believes his 
people "worthy of his best effort, and the 
question is not ^Is this job big enough for 
me?' but ^Am I big enough for this job?' " 
The magnifying of the country church by 
the pastor at Osceola, w^hose name is Bart- 
lett Eugene Allen, takes the form of de- 
veloping not merely personal character, 
which indeed is the main business of the 
church, but also the social environment, 
and the centering of all social activity in 
the church. His ministry has been bold to 
appreciate, not merely the psychology, but 
the sociology, of the place. In other 

[62] 



SOCIALIZED RURAL WORK 

words, the greatness of the country church 
in his eyes is the statesmanship growing 
out of personal service. Careful plans are 
made for social activities. The church 
enters heartily into every community 
gathering. There is a Fourth of July 
parade and plenty of fun, with a basket 
dinner, visiting, sports, and a baseball 
game. In an article on "Community Build- 
ing" the minister says, "This one thing I 
would make plain, that I do not mean to 
say that the church must run everything 
in the social line, but it must so radiate the 
spirit of Christianity that all the social 
functions and the very life of the com- 
munity will have a healthy moral tone." 
Mr. Allen believes in making the church 
big enough for the man. "The Illinois 
farmer does big things in a business way, 
and if the church is to reach him and to 
convert him to a better community life, 
it must be big enough to have a place in 

[63] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

his time and to appeal to his sense of 
strength." He believes in recognizing the 
rural intelligence and appealing to the 
brain and the energy of the Middle West 
farmer. Mr. Allen's views among those 
of ministers are the same as Prof. Carver's 
economic interpretation of the farmer. 
These men agree that the American farmer 
likes big machinery, large plans, adventur- 
ous purposes, and that to convert him to a 
community service he must be harnessed to 
great enterprises. Mr. Allen says, "I know 
of no place where the results of real active 
work for the Master are so sure and certain 
as out in the country ministering to those 
who live in the open, who toil and sow, 
breathing God's pure air and depending on 
nature to reward them with a bountiful 
harvest. They naturally live nearest to 
God, consequently respond most readily to 
his appeals." 

At Fowler, Kansas, there is a Christian 

C64] 



SOCIALIZED RURAL WORK 

church with a membership of one hundred 
and eighty in a population of less than 
seven hundred people, having three other 
Protestant churches. The development of 
this church has been due to the zeal and 
intelligent effort of Mrs. Mason and of the 
pastor, the Rev. John W. Jones. Its prog- 
ress has resulted from plans they made in 
order to satisfy the obvious need of a relig- 
ious and social center. Two lines of de- 
velopment are found in this church. The 
Sunday-school is well organized. Each 
class is an independent society, with ofEcers 
and committees, and good-natured rivalry 
prevails throughout the Sunday-school. 
Prizes are offered and the sporting spirit is 
not despised, for the contests between classes 
sometimes are terminated in a banquet pro- 
vided by the losers. The school does not 
despise genial methods which some think 
beneath the dignity of religious people. 
The other characteristic of this church 

C65] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

is a cordial and sympathetic social spirit. 
The church offers opportunity for good 
times in music, entertainments, and social 
meetings, which have many occasions 
throughout the year. There is an organized 
choir meeting every Tuesday evening, on 
occasion furnishing special 'music. There 
is even a junior choir and of the little boys 
a quartet. Apparently this church believes 
in organization and an office for every one 
in which he may serve the community 
through some assigned part in the common 
purposes of the church. 

Another church in the "corn belt" is the 
Presbyterian, at Edgington, Illinois. The 
minister, the Rev. A. G. Stewart, has been 
influential in forming the Edgington Rural 
Progressive Club, which held a two-days' 
farmers' institute during the worst blizzard 
of February, 19 14, with an average attend- 
ance of forty-five persons. Every speaker 
was a specialist. Such problems were dis- 
[66] 



SOCIALIZED RURAL WORK 

cussed as consolidated schools, community 
social life, newspaper publicity, and the 
opportunities for girls at the state univer- 
sity. Good roads were so thoroughly dis- 
cussed that a resolution was passed for 
bonding the country to secure funds for 
good country roads. The relation of these 
economic and social improvements to relig- 
ion is more evident in the country than 
elsewhere. Farmers do not need to have 
explained to them why the evangelist who 
preaches about heaven on Sunday shall pre- 
side at a meeting for good roads on Mon- 
day. "The kingdom of God has come near 
unto you" in the country, more near than 
in the cities where life is divided and relig- 
ion is alien to many material interests. 
Generally throughout the United States 
the churches which are succeeding in the 
country and holding their own are marked 
by broad sympathies, humane leadership, 
full possession of the gospel message as it 

[67] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

is taught in the Old and New Testaments, 
and all these are assured by the residence 
of a pastor in the country among his people 
— a man whose heart is open and sympa- 
thetic to every need of the countryside. 



[68] 



V 

SUGGESTIONS FOR RURAL 
CHURCH BUILDINGS 

IN the day of extension, which in most 
of the states is at an end so far as the 
open country is concerned, church build- 
ings were erected having only one room. 
The present needs require in the country a 
church building of a composite and elabo- 
rate form. It should fit the community, as 
the community grows, just as a garment fits 
the growing form of a child. Radical 
changes in clothing come in the life of a 
child, and a radical change has come to 
the country church, requiring a structure 
for worship suited to the composite and 
elaborate needs of the community. 

These needs are many in the service of 

[69] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

the most conservative type of religion. 
Their number is increased when one re- 
gards the church as a community force. In 
the country there are so few social forces 
at work in an organized form that the 
church is charged with more numerous 
responsibilities even than in the city. It is 
the only free institution universal among 
country people. In every region where 
farmers have settled they have erected 
churches without the help of government, 
by their own choice, so that the church is 
an exponent of the feeling and of the will 
of country people as no other institution is. 
It has the most valuable tradition and it 
inherits the most inspiring conceptions of 
community life. Lodges do not feel re- 
sponsible for the whole community. 
Schools are charged with a service to the 
children alone. But the church recognizes, 
toward the whole population, a duty to 
render the most public and open service. 

[70] 



RURAL CHURCH BUILDINGS 

In all building or erecting of churches 
it is important that the advice be asked of 
those who know how to design and to build. 
Ministers and church officers are seldom 
trained as architects or as builders, and the 
church should be a thing of beauty as well 
as of use. For the sake of both use and 
beauty the advice of an architect should be 
secured. 

The rebuilding of the rural house of 
worship is upon the mind of many congre- 
gations and their ministers. We present 
in this chapter the plan of one such church, 
which combines the elements entering into 
a great number of reconstructed country 
churches. It is the Du Page Presbyterian 
Church at Du Page, Illinois, of which the 
Rev. Matthew Brown McNutt was pastor. 
The story of its reconstruction has been told 
in his pamphlet "Modern Methods in the 
Country Church." It is published here be- 
cause the plans could easily be secured. 

[71] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

Other country churches contain the same 
elements. This one has a sufficient appeal 
to the community to illustrate the whole of 
the problems arising out of country life. 

The Du Page Church is a rebuilt country 
church. The former building, having but 
one room, was used in the new structure, 
its walls being utilized in the construction 
of the Sunday-school portion of the new 
building. This building furnishes means 
of ministry to the whole community in edu- 
cational, social, musical, and athletic direc- 
tions, and all these kinds of ministry are 
coordinated with the central fact of wor- 
ship, to the uses of which the main part of 
the new structure is devoted. 

The Du Page Church is best understood 
by one who comes to it on a wintry day 
from a long drive in the country. Com- 
fortable sheds are provided for the farmers' 
horse or horses; and when he enters the 
church the farmer himself finds a warm 

[72] 



RURAL CHURCH BUILDINGS 

cloak-room beside the doorway, in which 
he may leave his heavy outdoor garments. 
At the end of the service or entertainment 
he will find them dry and comfortable. 
During his time in the church building 
they do not encumber the seat he occupies. 
A similar cloak-room is furnished for his 
wife. 

If small children come to the church a 
room is provided in the farthest corner 
from the auditorium, in which are rocking- 
chairs and a comfortable bed always made 
up for the little children. Here a mother 
may rock her baby to sleep, and leave the 
child during the entertainment or the serv- 
ice of worship. Sometimes six little chil- 
dren have occupied this room at one time. 
The walls of this room are tastefully deco- 
rated with attractive pictures of mothers 
and children. 

The chief feature of the Du Page Church 
is the plain and simple auditorium for 

[73] 




|, Kitchen 



FLOOR PLANS OF THE DU PAGE CHURCH 

[74] 



RURAL CHURCH BUILDINGS 

worship. While not reserved exclusively 
for public worship, this meeting-place 
makes a peculiar appeal to the devotional 
spirit. People who come in even on a week- 
day are accustomed to sit down quietly as 
in a cathedral. The wonted use of this room 
has made its impression upon the whole 
countryside. In all the experience of the 
Du Page Church, with entertainments, 
musical events, Sunday-school, and church 
services, there has been singularly little 
cause for complaint. A peculiarly high 
sense of reverence is associated with the 
place of worship. 

Opening on the side of the auditorium by 
sliding doors is a Sunday-school room, 
which may be made an extension of the 
church auditorium. At one end of this 
structure are large classrooms. At the other 
end, nearest to the road, are the mothers' 
room and a cloak room. 

On either side of the pulpit recess is a 
[75] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

small room; one for the choir and one for 
the minister. Du Page Church has made 
a great deal of musical culture. Partly be- 
cause of the gifts and training of the former 
minister and his wife and partly because 
of the capacities of their people, a large 
place has been occupied in the development 
of this church by music. Singing classes 
and public entertainments with music as a 
central source of pleasure and education 
have been many. The history of the church 
shows how great a place in the social de- 
velopment of the community may be occu- 
pied by music. One is reminded of the use 
of music in the ancient development of the 
church, both in medieval times and in the 
inspired history of the Hebrews. 

In the basement, under the old structure, 
there is, in addition to an adequate heating 
plant, a dining-room with kitchen at hand 
for the use of the ladies. This room is 
simple and strongly made, with cement 

[76] 



RURAL CHURCH BUILDINGS 

floor, so that while it is used on occasion for 
a church dinner without disturbance of the 
main parts of the building, it may be used 
as well for an evening game by the young 
people, or a place of winter indoor sports 
by the boys of the community. Without 
the building are adequate grounds on which 
the young people of the community have 
had much pleasure. The residence of the 
minister is near by in a manse owned by the 
church, so that Du Page Church has a suit- 
able plant capable of ministering in any way 
to the needs of the w^hole community. At 
times the congregation has appropriated 
for evangelistic meetings and for public 
religious services in which the young people 
and men of the community have taken part 
a grove not far from the church. Indeed 
the whole countryside has been made tribu- 
tary to this church because of its force and 
its appeal to the whole community. 

Du Page Church contains in its building 
i77-\ 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

every feature most essential to the develop- 
ment of community life. The building is 
not thought perfect and in other communi- 
ties a different adaptation might need to 
be made, but for an open country church 
it has in a large measure the facilities and 
the means necessary for community service. 
The reconstruction of the old building was 
accomplished at a cash expenditure of ten 
thousand dollars, the whole of which was 
contributed within the community. The 
building was dedicated without debt. Of 
this church the Rev. Arthur Amy is pastor. 



[78] 



VI 

THE TOWN OR VILLAGE CHURCH 

IN LEADERSHIP OF 

COUNTRY LIFE 

THE village is not an alien in the 
country, but it is the rural capital. 
Cities are of a different order of life, but 
villages are of the rural order. The busi- 
ness of the village is to buy and sell with 
country people. The residents of the vil- 
lage are of the same stock as those who 
till the farm. The increase or the decrease 
of village population is identical with that 
of the open country. The concerns — social, 
economic and religious — of the village are 
the concerns of the open country. There- 
fore the village church should have a great 
place in the leadership of country life. 

[79] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

By the village in this connection we 
mean a center of population not greater 
than twenty-five hundred in number. There 
are some places that come within the mean- 
ing of this chapter where even more people 
dwell, and some population centers of less 
than twenty-five hundred have no real 
connection with the country, because they 
have to do with mining or manufacture. 
Bearing these exceptions in mind, the rule 
described is helpful in understanding the 
relation of the village to the open country. 

Unfortunately village churches have be- 
come alienated from the country. The re- 
lation of the city church to the open country 
has been thought of and the fact that the 
village is the capital of country life has 
been forgotten. But the city church has 
troubles enough of its own. It has the in- 
finitely difficult problem of immigration. 
It has the down-town and the working- 
man's problem. Questions of moral weight 

[80] 






VILLAGE LEADERSHIP 

which do not trouble the open country, ex- 
cept indirectly, have made impact upon the 
city church. The village church should con- 
cern itself with the country, as it seldom 
does. As a rule, around the villages and 
towns, which are centers of the economic 
life of the farmer, there is a zone usually 
two to four miles in width in which people 
generally do not go to church. They have 
no relation to the village churches which 
stand beside the stores where they trade. 
The churchgoer turns away from the village 
or town to worship in some obscure rural 
meeting-house or more often to worship not 
at all. The village too often repels the 
farmer. 

The sources of this alienation are not 
wholly religious. Around village and town 
and small city has been built an economic 
wall, which must be broken down, if the 
farmers are to feel at home in the village 
and town. There must be many lines of 
[8i] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

connection and intercourse before worship 
can become the crowning expression of 
unity among those whose life centers in the 
village. 

Brilliant examples of the ministry of the 
church in the village or the open country 
are found in all sections of the country, 
though their total number is small. Dr. 
Silas E. Persons, Presbyterian minister 
for twenty years in Cazenovia, New York, 
was one of the first to see that his church 
had lost its rural attendance. The road 
to the church from a neighboring sec- 
tion of farms, which used to bring twenty 
families on Sunday morning, in recent years 
was found to bring only three to church. 
Dr. Persons began his ministry to the coun- 
try by holding meetings in schoolhouses. 
He found an amazing response to the 
simple preaching of the gospel among a 
people who for some strange reasons had 
been denied its privileges for a generation. 

[82] 



VILLAGE LEADERSHIP 

So large and so promising were the results 
that the policy of his church had to be 
revised to fit the new tasks and responsi- 
bilities. 

Dr. Persons and his people went about 
the task with characteristic thoroughness. 
Social meetings were devised, dinners of 
welcome and other social occasions, for the 
particular purpose of welcoming the new 
converts to the village church. They were 
made to feel at home. They were received 
not into formal membership alone, but into 
the heartiest share in the church so near the 
center of their social and economic life. 
These measures went forward throughout 
a whole year, while new districts in the 
country were invaded by the preacher, 
seeking to give the gospel to those who at- 
tended no church. The crowning act of 
unifying the community in Cazenovia was 
the annual fair established in September 
as a meeting-place of all interested in the 

[83] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

community. An exhibit of everything done 
and made in the community, plowing con- 
tests, quilting competitions, sports on land 
and water, engaged the attention of all the 
people of the community. Nothing has 
been for sale. The event has become a 
great gathering of the people of Cazenovia 
and vicinity. The first year the attendance 
was to be counted in hundreds, but after 
that in thousands. 

The Rev. H. S. Mills, of Benzonia, 
Michigan, is a Congregational minister to 
whom the enlargement of his parish came 
almost as a vision, after years of service in 
a village where cultured and privileged 
people of the countryside live. His expe- 
rience is related in the book, The Making 
of a Country Parish: A Story. Going out 
first among the rural dwellers beyond the 
normal bounds of his congregation, he spent 
days and weeks in exploration of the relig- 
ious needs of people outside the zone of 

[84] 



VILLAGE LEADERSHIP 

the village. He came back deeply im- 
pressed with the need of a larger unit of 
life and worship in his church. His people 
engaged with him in a consecrated effort to 
extend the parish bounds beyond their 
traditional radius. They undertook with 
him increasing burdens. They released 
him from local service for the larger ad- 
venture. Persistent effort to evangelize the 
countryside, from which men had not been 
accustomed to go to church, brought such 
real results that the whole life and program 
of the Benzonia church was changed. 

Allies came to the church and its minister 
from two quarters. The missionary super- 
intendent of his own denomination offered 
him, after considering the matter, an assist- 
ant. Later another assistant was added, 
with the growth of the work. This gave 
an adequate parish force. With fine or- 
ganizing ability the minister of the Ben- 
zonia church has been able to accomplish 
[8s] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

five times as much with three pairs of hands 
as he was able to do with one. A second 
alliance of the parish came in the form of 
cooperation with a neighboring denomina- 
tion, which gave up to the Benzonia church 
certain preaching points within its larger 
parish, receiving in return a corresponding 
surrender in another field at a distance. 
This left to the church with enlarged vision 
a great open territory in which it could 
render cathedral service. 

The results have been very great both in 
the way of unifying the countryside under 
a common religious leadership and in the 
way also of increase in attendance and in 
contributions in the Benzonia church itself. 

In a village in the East where there 
are three churches the problem of de- 
generacy in the outlying locality became 
very acute ; so much so that the moral tone 
of the village was impregnated to an 
alarming degree. To meet this situation 
[86] 



VILLAGE LEADERSHIP 

the churches of the village came together 
in a Social Service League, recognizing 
their common problem. Two near-by vil- 
lages in the same township joined with 
them. A social worker was engaged. 
Through this medium an excellent work 
was done. While not under the direction 
of the churches exclusively, the work was 
promoted by them, and thus they were 
brought together in a form of federation 
that made a unity of spirit in bettering the 
village conditions that was invaluable. 

Every village church should have a pro- 
gram of service to the people of the open 
country. Many churches in the village 
will find that if they minister with accept- 
ance to the farmers dwelling along the 
country roads, they will thereby win the 
villagers dwelling along the village streets. 
We suggest the following brief program 
for the village church. 

(i) Persistent annual evangelization of 

[87] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

the open country at meetings in school- 
houses, in which the pastor shall have the 
assistance of teams of laymen who shall go 
out with him or by themselves to speak, to 
testify, and to teach, in Sunday-schools and 
religious meetings in the open country. 
Unused church buildings, schoolhouses or 
farmhouses, or in the summer open-air 
places, may be used for these meetings. The 
purpose in them all is to build up, not 
primarily local congregations, though these 
in some places may follow, but to build up 
the village church by gathering into its 
membership the people of the open country. 
(2) In order to bridge the chasm between 
the village and the country deliberate 
methods of socialization are necessary. The 
people of the country will not feel at home 
in the village church, if they have been 
alienated from it, without special modes of 
welcoming them. It is not enough to as- 
semble groups of converted people in the 
[88] 



VILLAGE LEADERSHIP 

country, and to receive them into member- 
ship. It is profoundly important that they 
be made members of the local church and 
brought into working and vital union on 
Sunday with those with whom they trade 
throughout the week. 

For this purpose a series of celebrations 
of the holidays of the year is commended. 
The village should be the center of com- 
memorating the great days of the church 
and the secular year. Days that are set 
apart by the state and by the Church may 
well be made the occasion of the gathering 
of all the people from the countryside. If 
they are foreigners this is a good method of 
Americanization. If they are hard-worked, 
these holidays will bring them together for 
rest and recreation. If tenants are many, 
these celebrations will enable them to meet 
with the landlord in a democratic and 
helpful manner. 

(3) The village church should see that 

[89] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

means are provided for the comfort of 
country people at a central point in the 
village. Horse-sheds are sometimes lack- 
ing in the village, and as a form of social 
service the opening of horse-sheds on the 
church property for the free use of the 
public is sometimes of sensational value. 
But if the church should care for the horse, 
it should care far more for the women and 
children, who come with their men from 
the country for business and practical pur- 
poses. While the men are trading, the 
women should have a comfortable place to 
wait. It may well be in the church or other 
public building. It should be near to the 
stores, conveniently furnished to meet the 
needs and to provide comfort for those who 
have to wait. Such an enterprise may be 
greatly enlarged to form a kind of forum 
or meeting-hall where men and women may 
have many services rendered such as are 
needed in a busy farming community. 

[90] 



VILLAGE LEADERSHIP 

(4) The church should bear in mind that 
her place is to bring comfort and peace and 
spiritual unity to the people. The village 
church should be watchful of all the needs 
of the countryside. It should provide 
means for the discussion of general inter- 
ests. It should bear in mind that these 
general interests are almost surely agricul- 
tural interests, for these are bonds the most 
profound and the most pervasive in country 
life. Churches should not scorn to be the 
nursing mothers of enterprises which will 
pass beyond their control. There are two 
churches in New York state located in vil- 
lages, whose members in their rural meet- 
ings have conceived and planned the light- 
ing of the village streets. This is a good 
illustration of the form of social service of 
value to the farmer as much as to the village 
dweller. One village church in a neighbor- 
hood made up of Protestant and Roman 
Catholic people has planned and launched 

[91] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

an enterprise which took form in a village 
bank much needed by an honest, hard-work- 
ing population. These illustrations are 
given, not as the highest or the noblest thing 
a church can do, but as examples of service 
to be rendered by a village church attentive 
to any and all the needs of the flock for 
which it stands. The parish of the village 
church lies far out of the village streets. 
Minister and people must conceive their 
work in all the village in the largest way 
and bring into the fold of God all those 
whose faces are turned at any time of the 
week toward the streets of the village. 



[92] 



VII 

THE COMMUNITY CENTER 
CHURCH AS THE EMBODI- 
MENT OF FEDERATION 
AND RELIGIOUS UNION 

THE doctrine of religious unity is dear 
to the heart of all Christian people. 
As much as any doctrine of the fathers this 
ideal of their sons is powerful in the 
modern heart, especially of business men 
and farmers. One meets it in all parts of 
the country. In every public gathering the 
expression of the longing for religious 
unity calls forth a tumultuous response. 
Books without number have been written 
upon it. Creeds and programs have been 
conceived and produced in every part of 
the country. Federations have been organ- 

[93] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

ized in greater numbers than the denom- 
inations which they would unite. Indeed 
there is more than one denomination in the 
country which was conceived and born with 
the purpose of being a union of divided 
Christian people. 

There is a service rendered, though it be 
temporary, by union churches and creeds 
and programs and federations. This ser- 
vice is partly negative. It appears to be 
clearing the way for greater Christian 
union. These measures put an end to the 
old recriminations and condemn the former 
custom of mutual criticism between de- 
nominations. Yet union churches seldom 
live long and the programs or creeds of 
church federations do not get themselves 
organized. The union of divided Christian 
people is slow in coming. In the United 
States the marriage even of communions 
bearing the same name is retarded and de- 
layed by difBculties. 

[94] 



FEDERATION AND UNION 

The churches of the North American 
Continent are looking to Canada, where 
positive union seems to be near at hand. 
The close sympathy of the Presbyterian, 
Methodist, and Congregational Churches 
and the working union of which they have 
already more than a promise throws a light 
of hope upon the divided state of American 
Christianity. Many devout people hope 
and pray that the imminent union may be 
perfected, but in no other religious experi- 
ence are we brought so plainly face to face 
with the working of God's hand alone, as 
in the profoundly difficult and delicate 
enterprise of uniting the Christian 
churches. 

Meantime the church which serves the 
community is an embodiment of the union 
of Christian people. While men have been 
dreaming ineffective dreams of legislative 
union between denominations, the Holy 
Spirit has been teaching us to socialize the 

[95] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

work of the churches. Ministers and 
people have longed for a useful church. 
Their hearts have expanded v^ith interest 
in social service. They have w^orked to- 
gether in making the church a ministering 
agency to the v^hole community. Wherever 
this has been done, there has been found 
the union and cooperation of Christian folk 
about v^hich federations and fusions have 
talked and dreamed. 

These community churches are found in 
all denominations. They are stronger if 
they have a denominational name and the 
momentum of one of the great churches, 
than if they be independent or union efforts. 
They have come into existence through the 
leadership of men whose heart God has 
touched and v^hose eyes have been anointed 
w^ith the ability to see the nev^ day. Service 
of the whole community is a new develop- 
ment of the spirit of man under the teach- 
ing of the Spirit of God. 

[96] 



FEDERATION AND UNION 

In the cities this relation between comity 
or federation of churches and community 
service is not so apparent as in the open 
country, for in the country the population 
is sparse and generally is diminishing. 
There is no room for a church to serve the 
people except in a cooperation of all the 
Christian people in the community, and in 
the country it has become apparent that 
everywhere such community service, urban 
or rural, is cooperative. Wherever it is 
rendered it expresses the unity of Christian 
folk, for service is the work of the Master. 
About his work Christian people are not 
in disagreement. In doing his work the 
followers of the Master are brought to- 
gether. To do the service which men need 
to-day in the community is to express his 
mind and will. The challenge to commun- 
ity service is the true test of the Christian 
in all denominations. It calls men of de- 
vout mind together. It disregards the divi- 

[97] 



THE CHURCH AT THE CENTER 

sions between conservative and liberal. It 
unites the devout and the humble of every 
sort and name. It satisfies the longing of 
humble folk, v^^ho find in service the very 
thing for v^hich they became Christians. It 
is the rallying center around which all men 
may be gathered, and in this center under 
the flag of the Master his fellow servants 
find the comfort and the faith which has 
been in all times the motive and the reward 
of the children of God. 



[98] 



\ 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Sept. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Dnve 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



?v 



61^ 



